Banding a tube, possible?
 

I have a Motorola XM-501 open-frame monitor in one of my 1970s B&W arcade games. It has a 20WP4 tube in it, with significant phosphor burn.

I have a 19XP4 tube which came out of an Admiral set which got junked, and was hoping I could install it to get a fresh display. Problem is, the 19XP4 doesn't have a tension band, so I can't mount it directly in the frame of the Motorola monitor. And, now that I think about it, it's an inch smaller.

So, question is, is it possible to install a tension band on a tube which didn't originally have one? Or do I need to keep looking for a donor tube?

Why is the tension band important to you? Do you care about the implosion protection or is it just that you want the band to hold the mounting ears?

Adding a band to a tube that lacks it won't act as implosion protection, and may actually cause implosion if over-tightened.

The mounting ears that the band holds on the tube are not part of the band. You do not need an original style band to hold the ears on (they are available*) a few large hose clamps would suffice.

*In the shipping department of my employer I've seen massive crane control cabinets strapped to pallets using the same style steel bands as what I've seen on CRTs so the parts are out there. I doubt you can find the mounting ears though.

Also the size difference may be a non-starter for that swap.

I need the mounting ears to install the TV tube in the monitor frame.

I was afraid of that.

Yeah; I've seen bands with ears welded to them, and also the type where they're between the band and the faceplate.

How poor a life decision would it be to take an angle grinder to one of those bands to get the ears out?

Yeah, realizing that I may be better off trading the tube for another...

Removing the factory tension band often causes implosion....Unless you break the neck of the tube to release the vacuum before cutting the band....Don't harvest tabs from tubes still capable of producing an image bright enough to watch....No one rebuilds CRTs anymore so it is best to wait till they die before stripping one.

There is not a lot to those tabs...A good machinist could probably make new ones for you, or you might be able to cobble up a usable substitute.

Why not attach it to the glass using a panel bonding adhesive instead of band tension?

http://3mcollision.com/3m-panel-bond...ive-08116.html

Old CRT had ears, and the new one you want to use doesn't, correct?

We used to run into this all the time with the 19V Color CRTs. We saved mounting ears from old CRTs just for this purpose, and used the Magnavox 19" bands with the hose-clamp style adjuster. 25V CRTs could be done, but it was a hassle - you had to rivet two bands together.

Do you have another set of ears? Another band? Easy if you do, but impossible without either.

BTW, I have a bunch of CRT mounting stuff, sorry no bands, but lots of capture clamps, mounting bolts, and a handful of cabinet parts - angle brackets and the like. Dad was a hoarder, and hated buying anything hardware related. I probably have 30 sets of cabinet feet from metal and wood cabinet sets, along with leg plates, but no legs.

Would that work? This would have to be a bond between the glass and metal, which it doesn't seem like that stuff does.

Yes, old tube has ears & new one doesn't. I don't have a replacement band, all the ones I could use are welded together, but I could pull the ears off. I have some hose clamp, but I wasn't sure that would work. I wouldn't want to break the tube tightening it down enough to support its weight.

I can't imagine anything that bonds sheet metal not being able to bond glass....having worked in autobody that stuff can stick anything together. Admittedly, I haven't tried it in this type of application though.